X-Men: First Class: Critic Reviews

McAvoy and Fassbender are a casting triumph. These two have, yes, real star magnetism, both individually and together: They're both cool and intense, suave and unaffected, playful and dead serious about their grand comic-book work.

Mr. Vaughn doesn't bring conviction to the story's identity politics (say it loud, I'm mutant and I'm proud), but he gives Mr. Fassbender and Mr. McAvoy room to bring the brotherly love.

It's as absurd a piece of alternative history as Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, but much less fun.

If there is to be yet another X-Men movie in the future - though I have to say that now might be the time to call it quits - then a solo effort with Fassbender's super-nasty Magneto would be the way to go.

Revives the flagging franchise with this globe-trotting iteration, infusing it with new life and dazzling visual effects.

"First Class" happily delivers on the escapism and rich narrative texture the best of its predecessors have promised.

Entertaining enough for a Saturday night, and much more satisfying than the last X-Men' offshoot, the woeful Wolverine.

Lacking a single memorable joke or striking image, First Class is as perfunctory and passionless as would-be franchise resurrections get.

It's big, bright, savvy, and so expansive you'll undoubtedly leave feeling you got your money's worth.

Preaching mutant pride with endearing fervor, "X-Men: First Class" proves to be a mutant in its own right -- a zestfully radical departure from the latter spawn of a sputtering franchise.

Uneven, occasionally silly -- true, but it's still an improvement over 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand.

The X-Men franchise always had a lot on its mind compared to most of its superhero brethren.

The finest comic-book flick since 2008's The Dark Knight.

These days at the movies, one tends to give a lot of thanks for small favors.

Looks and feels like a very cheesy Cold War-era B movie...

The scene where the mutants stand on a beach and mentally duel by causing both American and Soviet missiles to shuttle back and forth in the sky is ... hilarious, I was going to say, but no, I should consider this scene more devoutly.

The film features Michael Fassbender in a pivotal role. That's enough to lift it above the mechanics of the routine.

The notion of a period-piece comic book movie, which could fancifully reshuffle historical episodes, has great potential, but neither the cast nor the filmmakers aim for the sort of period detail that would have made the premise interesting.

There's just so much you can do with lines like "You're not alone, Eric, you're not alone" and "the president's about to make his address!" before you get sucked into the vortex.

A richly layered, intelligently worked-out prequel, it melds a dozen back stories, globe-hopping thrills and historic political confrontations, yet it never packs too many sardines into the tin.

With all the blue-haired, flying, screaming, mind-melding hi-jinks this film has to offer, you'd think it would be able to squeeze in a few novel bursts of fun.

"X-Men: First Class" isn't anywhere close to being a genre classic like "Spider-Man 2" or "The Dark Knight," but it is good enough to rejuvenate a franchise stuck on idle.

It's remarkable how many things "First Class" gets right, whether it's the decision to have characters speak different languages as the film's frequent globe-trotting dictates, or the casting of Fassbender and McAvoy.

A large and talented cast manages to make more than a dozen characters pop, but still this is the Michael Fassbender show.

It's good, clean summer movie fun where the money they spend is up on the screen -- with actors and effects -- so that we won't mind spending our money on it.